Clinging Poem/Prayer

I must share this.  I shared it with my Finding Spirit Here Now group last Sunday and have been asked to give copies to others.  It comes from my little book entitled "That You May Have Life.  Let the Mystics Be Your Guide for Lent."  (Sorry this is so tiny font size - can't seem to adjust it.  If you'd like a copy in larger size, email me at yogatorium@ninetysix.net)

Cling to Nothing - Thomas a Kempis
If you are constantly in search of this or that,

wanting to be anywhere

but where you are,

believing that you will be happier

having more or being somewhere else,

you will never know peace,

never be free of care.

In everything and every place

you will find something lacking.

Adding things to your life,

multiplying them,

will not bring you peace.

Only by cutting back

and breaking their control over your life

will you find peace.

This applies not only

to money and riches,

but to the desire for honor, for praise,

and for an undemanding life.

Don’t desire what you do not have.

And do not cling to anything

which stands

in the way of your freedom in God.

Cling to nothing

that stands between your soul

and its freedom.

In the dying of this day

help me to glimpse

the first light of a new day

and the beginnings of a new life.

Tomorrow I will not find more peace

than I have in all my yesterdays.

Nor will I be free of care

by adding things to my life

or by looking somewhere other than

where I am.

I will not be happier having more

or being somewhere else.

Your peace waits for me where I am.